Three oh Three in the Morning
by Fact Vs Fiction
Summary: Nanao is just having one of those nights. Luckily for her her feet seem to possess selective hearing and she knows just who to run to. Shunsui/Nanao ONESHOT* First In the Moment in Time series.


**Title: 3.03 in the Morning**

**Author: FactVsFiction**

**Pairing: Shunsui/Nanao**

**Rating: K+**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach Tite Kubo does. I am merely borrowing his characters. **

**A/N: There hasn't been a completed Shunsui/Nanao fic published in aaaaaages. I'm pretty happy with this one. Yes I am writing in Nanao's POV **_**again **_**but I find her easier to work with.**

**OoOoOoOoOoOo**

**3.03 in the Morning**

Nanao paced her room silently, over and back over and back in the relatively confined space. She chewed on her nail as she paced, her bare feet padding on the unforgiving cold wood of the floor. It was a nervous habit she'd picked up as a child and never grown out of.

She almost growled at the feeling of tears pricking her eyes. It was absolutely ridiculous she never cried! Her frustration at the tears only served to bring more to her eyes. She was being completely over emotional and down right irrational. Honestly! Who cries over the knowledge of a situation you've known about for months!? The war was going to happen. Fact. She'd known this for months. Fact. So why in the world was she getting worked up over it now?!

"Completely irrational!" She grumbled.

Unfortunately that didn't change the fact that she _was _worked up. So worked up in fact that she was pacing back and forth on the verge of tears at one in the morning. Acknowledging the tears was the final straw and the spilled over onto her cheeks. She ignored them. If she didn't physically acknowledge them then they weren't happening. Ise-Nanao did not cry. She'd grown up in Zaraki for heavens sake!

She absently changed the nail in her mouth… Having bitten the previous one to the quick…

OoOoOoOoOoOo

She glanced at the clock.

1.47am

_She would not stoop that low. She would not stoop that low. She would not stoop that low. She would NOT stoop that low_. She repeated over and over again in her head. A mantra. It was official. She was finally going insane due to lack of sleep and overwork. She knew it was going to happen one day!

She _had _to be going insane. Sane fully grown women did not contemplate going running to their captain just because they were being _irrational!_ Heck _sane _street children did not run to _anybody _for help!

She plonked down on her futon, any grace and elegance she may have possessed abandoned as she chewed on yet another nail. Elegance be damned she was _tired _and _angry_ with herself. She'd stopped the tears but to her dismay she was still on the verge.

Having sat because she was sick of pacing she let out a whine of complete hopelessness as her left foot almost immediately began to bounce this of course only served to start the water works again. She smacked the floor hard with the heel of the bouncing extremity but immediately regretted it, yelping in pain.

She was back on her feet in seconds. Pacing again. Restless…

OoOoOoOoOoOo

2.17am

That was it. She couldn't stay in her room any longer it was suffocating her. She'd just go for a walk… She was NOT going to wake him!

Tonight however her feet seemed to have a mind of their own, barely pausing as she reached the door to her captain's quarters.

_Trespassing Nanao. _Her brain reminded. Apparently her feet had selective hearing because they simply ignored the organ.

She stopped dead as she reached the bedroom door, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.

She shouldn't be here. She knew she shouldn't. It wasn't that she'd never been in his quarters before, heck she'd even been in his bedroom but this was completely different. Every other time it had been for _him. _For _his _own good whether it be lugging him up to his futon after he passed out from sake at three in the morning or waking him for an early morning captain's meeting that he simply could not afford to miss. She had never been here for her own benefit and it felt wrong, like she was intruding.

It was the feeling of intrusion that had her stop and her _pride _that had her turning and walking away. She was halfway down the stairs when she stopped.

She needed this. If simply to sit outside the door and listen to him breathe. She needed to know he was there. She needed to know that somebody else was alive and that she wasn't alone in the dead of night.

His door was open a crack, she noticed as she reached the landing again, tiptoeing across it. She pushed the door with a shaky hand, praying that it wouldn't squeak. It didn't and swung open just enough to allow her to squeeze through.

Her feet made the transition from wood to carpet as she crossed the threshold and she simply stood there, arms still crossed, her toes curling and uncurling in the carpet, an alternative for pacing.

The room was almost pitch black. Heavy curtains blocked out the moonlight and perhaps more importantly where Shunsui was concerned, the sunlight. His futon was in the far left hand corner, where it always was. Although it was dark his room did it's job. It smelt of her captain, something that comforted her more than she could find words to describe. The carpet was soft under her feet and the darkness was embracing, not cold and unfriendly like in her own room. She could just barely make out the dark clump of blankets that was her captain as they rose and fell in sync with the only sound in the room, his deep even breathing.

She glanced at the clock on his dresser.

3.03am.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

She idly wondered how he could sleep. So carefree and easy while she was fretting. It was a stupid question of course because she knew she was being ridiculous. On top of that her captain was a carefree man by nature and no doubt his peace was helped along by the copious amounts of sake he'd probably ingested before bed.

Not for the first time she wondered why she didn't drink.

She was by his bedside before she realised that she'd moved and she just managed to stop her hand before she shook him. She held her breath and looked down at him from her kneeling position. She could see his features clearly now. His hat absent his hair was loosely spread across his pillow. Abnormally long eyelashes tickled his cheekbones and his whole face was relaxed in slumber, the furrow that had recently formed between his brows gone. She wanted peace like that.

Her treacherous hand had travelled the remaining few millimetres and shook him before she could stop it. His even breathing hitched slightly and his eyelids fluttered open to reveal large brown doe eyes which settled on her almost immediately.

"Nanao-chan?" He questioned sleepily. His mind seemed to realise that something wasn't right shortly after because his eyes became more alert. "Nanao-chan wha's the matter?" He asked, concerned.

"Can I stay with you?" She whispered, hating how tight her voice sounded even to her own ears and how her eyes burned. Hating her dependence.

His whole face softened as he seemed to understand.

"Of course Nanao-chan." He lifted the edge of the covers and she didn't think twice about slipping in. He draped the covers back over them wrapping the arm that had been holding them securely around her waist and pulling her to his chest.

The movement seemed to burst the dam and Nanao shook silently as the tears finally broke free of her grasp. Her captain said nothing, just held her, resting his chin on the crown of her head and kissing her hair once.

He spoke only after her shaking had stopped.

"Yare yare Nanao-chan you're freezing." He murmured, catching her toes between his own feet in an attempt to warm them up.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered finally.

"Don't be Nanao-chan. Everything will look better in the daylight. For now just go to sleep."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

**A/N**: Ever had one of those nights where the whole world feels like it's falling down on top of you? I have.

Read and review. I think there's going to be a sequel in Shunsui's POV if I ever manage to write him in character but only if you want it.

Slán

Becca


End file.
